In the Public Interest

The ad came over the Buffalo television station touting a nuclear plant called Nine Mile Pt. 2, which is nearing completion. The message was upbeat and false. Thoughindirectly paid for by the utility’s consumers, the ad managed to ignore some facts about this monument to technological disaster. First, the Nine Mile Pt. 2 nuclear plant…

Five teen-agers derailed a train at Fair Lawn, N.J., a few days ago. The train’s engineer was killed. When reporters asked residents why these youths did this, the summary of responses added up to one word: boredom. “If you got no money,” said one 17-year-old, “this is what you have to do—you hang out by…

A congressional showdown is coming this summer over the Reagan-backed Clinch River Breeder Reactor plant that conservative taxpayer groups have dubbed a “technological dinosaur.” Inside Congress a coalition of Republicans. and Democrats, led by Rep. Claudine Schneider, R-R.I., is pushing to cut off taxpayer funds for this 10-year-old project, which has already cost $1 billion…

It was the largest demonstration in New York City history. The cause also was large–nuclear arms control. Nearly a million people–young and elderly, students and union members, a mixture of ethnic and racial groups from many states and foreign countries–marched from the United Nations to the great lawn of Central Park to hear speakers and…

CHICAGO, Ill.–One hundred thousand steelworkers have been laid off in the country and this U.S. steel industrial complex, once bustling with activity, has laid off 70 percent of its workers. At the union hall of a United Steelworkers of America (USWA) local, the mood was grim. “It’s worse than the Depression,” said one old-timer, noting…

Bill Bradley was not known for staying on the sidelines during his professional basketball career with the New York Knicks. But Sen. Bill Bradley did just that for the June 8th Democratic primary in New Jersey for the nomination to the U.S. Senate. He declined to endorse any candidate, although it is known that his…

“Waste not, want not” reflects little of the ways of corporate industry. These waste-makers have filled too many dumps and landfills with disposable containers, designed too many vehicles, buildings and appliances to be energy gluttons, and generally inflicted too much product obsolescence on the consuming public. But in one area, the rebellion against can and…

It came like a thunderbolt from Zeus–the unanimous decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals reversing Secretary of Transportation Drew Lewis’ order rescinding the auto crash protection standard last October. Lewis told me the next day that he would have no comment until he studied the 76-page opinion. Were he to read the three-judge court’s…

ON BOARD AMTRAK TRAIN FROM NEW YORK CITY TO ALBANY–From the start of our conversation, I realized he was not your usual import-export textile executive. A 1968 graduate of Columbia University (a non-participant in the student revolt that year), he had gone into his family business and become quite successful. Just coming from a day-long…

The decision by Transportation Secretary Drew Lewis to weaken the bumper standard from protecting cars in 5-mph crashes, as presently is the case, to a 2.5-mph level has to be described as grotesque. With millions of Americans refusing to buy cars made by U.S. auto companies, the Reagan administration goes out of its way to…